Sunshine-y orange, to cheer me up on rainy days like today, by yaznotjaz
Sometimes when I am bored or tired or stressed, I hit “compose” on a new email window and type nonsense. Like this one at work today:
This is one example of the ways in which we can collaborate on projects based around shared issues […]

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Let’s go home, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
By Tuesday or so, I had already realized this week needed to be over. My GMail status:
Dear God: Please make it be Saturday already, because this week kind of sucks. Thank you.
Love, Yasminay
The responses were hilarious:
Anjum, channeling God:
Dear Yasminay,
*sigh*, I get this request every week from you.
[…]

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A chessboard awaits potential players in an Oakland park, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
The Lovely L Lady asked me this evening, “So, what do you do during this meditation?”
“Well. I just close my eyes and concentrate on dua [supplications] and dhikr and any other prayers I have memorized.”
“Oh, good,” she said in mock relief. “I thought […]

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Sunshine seating at the New Tandoori Cafe, San Jose, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
I had dinner tonight with two women I met a couple of months ago at a work-related event. They somehow took a liking to me, and expressed interest in meeting up sometime. Sure, I said, thinking, New friends! After some back and forth, […]

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Hanging out at the art store, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
It’s never a good idea to blog about work, but I would just like to say: It’s not a part of my job description to waste time answering idiotic questions like, “What should I label this box? ‘Scratch paper’? Or ‘Scrap paper’?”
I am a very important […]

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Pencils so pretty, it makes you want to eat them, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
My (3 or more) Beautiful Things posts always contain snippets from a single given day of the week, but, in this case, I haven’t written in a while, so the following is a compilation of things from the past couple of weeks:
one. […]

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Rainbow skirt, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz
In response to an email I sent earlier today, a colleague replied simply,
Yasmine,
You’re so good with detail.
In a few simple words, he managed to cheer me up and, for now, make it all okay: The long hours; the nonstop conference calls, meetings, and events that take up nearly all […]

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Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz
I took the above photo in mid-January and uploaded it to flickr in mid-February. The title:
Somehow I trick myself into believing that if I go around wearing floaty summer dresses, winter will end all the sooner.
The caption:
This day’s wardrobe consisted of the following: Flared jeans + floaty summer dress + […]

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Get stoned at workOriginally uploaded by yaznotjaz

Driving along to work this morning, I heard on the radio that today is Get Over It Day. The website is hilarious - you can type out what you want to get over, and click “submit,” and it turns into a piece of […]

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All photos originally uploaded by yaznotjaz; collage created last summer by Hashim_A, rockstar (and tea-lover. gross!) extraordinaire. Photos may be individually viewed in the Muir Beach photoset.
-Tomorrow is the sister’s birthday, and in ten days it’s mine - and I’m so horrible at this birthday business, mine or anyone else’s. Last year, all I wanted […]

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yellowsunshine diptych, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
From Tuesday, January 23, 2007
one. The Howie Day album I haven’t listened to in over a year because it inexplicably started skipping just as inexplicably works perfectly again when I pop it into my CD player while driving to work. I spend my commute listening to music that reminds me […]

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Sprinkles are for happy kids, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Back in the summer, when I first started working where I do now, my new colleague A watched me shovel cold apple pie into my mouth and asked, “Is that your breakfast?”
“Yes.”
She rolled her eyes, and I asked, “What? What’s wrong with eating apple pie for breakfast?”
“There […]

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Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
The heat wasn’t working at the office today, which means I spent most of the day being aggravated about the cold and - of course - engaging in monologues with God about how much I disapprove of this winter business.
“It’s all in your head, Yasminay,” […]

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Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Okay, kids, so remember that part where I said I was going to post “three beautiful things” everyday? Well, clearly, it didn’t work so well, because - once again! - I haven’t really updated in nearly three weeks. The good news is, I’ve been scribbling down beautiful things in my lovely little […]

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Sunlight shadows on the sidewalk, Friday afternoon, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
This afternoon, after clicking over to Blogger.com and pausing before signing in (believe it or not, this is something I do often: I decide I want to update this weblog, I click over to Blogger, and then I just stop, overcome by a feeling of […]

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